Autodesk is to acquire cloud-based production management software firm Shotgun.

Shotgun’s tools are used by the likes of Framestore and Prime Focus, providing business tools for managers and visual collaboration tools for artists and supervisors.

In a blog post, Shotgun co-founder and chief executive Don Parker said the Shotgun brand and support team would remain, and that the company would “continue to develop and support third party tools from The Foundry, Side Effects, Adobe, Autodesk and more, even faster.

“We’re committed to an open platform that supports all the tools you choose to use in your pipeline. That’s the only approach that will work, and everyone at Autodesk supports that”.

He added: “Autodesk’s broad global network and development resources will speed up the pace of innovation and development of our global platform. Together, we will extend our tools deeper into the production process, and develop new solutions that best support the studios of the future.”

Autodesk Media and Entertainment senior vice president Chris Bradshaw said: “The acquisition of Shotgun will accelerate Autodesk’s efforts to deliver solutions that help our creative customers solve the critical problem of operating more efficiently by collaborating globally to deliver increasingly complex productions on time and budget.

“Shotgun brings deep expertise and industry-leading technology in cloud products and production management, so we welcome the team, customers and community to Autodesk.”